The Return of the Banished not sure what year or who directed it, but it was part of a Romanian film festival going on. Not what I was expecting. Some amazing color compositions that seemed to get more dramatic as the film progressed, but there was next to no plot in the film and it failed to connect on a metaphysical level like other better known Eastern European medieval films.

Téchiné has set a highly standard for himself in recent years, so I was somewhat disappointed; definitely not a bad film, though. Depardieu and Deneuve had some wonderful moments together. But I thought Téchiné tried to deal with far too many issues, some of whom he'd already done justice to in his earlier films. He's rebounded rather quickly with The Witnesses, which I liked quite a bit.

Elegy (Hungary/1965) - One of the most visually stunning avant-garde shorts I've ever seen. Directed by Huszárik Zoltán, who only made a handful of films before committing suicide at the age of 50.

Yearning (Japan/1964) - The more Naruse I watch the more I believe that he was even superior than Ozu, whom I previously regarded as the best of all Japanese filmmakers. The final act of this film has to be one of the finest passages of Naruse's career.

It has been almost 8 years since I last saw this film and there's a reason. This was arguably the saddest film I had ever watched in my life and although incredibly moving, is a bit tough to sit through. As I'm more intently gearing up for a revision of my top 100 this was an essential film to revisit, after all how can I have a film in my top 20 that I've only seen once and 8 years ago at that? The film was still quite moving, and I was amazed at how much I remembered from the film and the overwhelming message throughout. The picture although horribly tragic and depressing throughout contains some level of hope and affirms the will to live present in the human spirit. I can't honestly say the film will remain in my top 20 after a repeat viewing as it failed to captivate me in the same way it did several years ago. Still the most profound film Yimou has made and the one I'd most likely regard as his best, however knowing what was going to happen made me almost hesitant to appreciate it this time. Unlike Ordinary People which showed me on a repeat viewing exactly why I had found the film so amazing the first time, To Live came up just slightly short. The cinematography was excellent and as a portrait of turbulent Chinese history it is incredible, but perhaps I had let myself praise the film too much. I hate it when this happens.